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8

Sweaver

Concept & Approach

This woven sample collection is looking at past and present Swedish textile consumption habits. Inspired by the traditional Swedish rep weaving technique (ripsväv) TT6, the designer has created a weave structure that transforms textile waste into new durable fabric. Rep weaving was commonly used to utilise the very last scraps of household textile waste TT1.

The weaves are made out of durable TENCEL yarn and discarded clothes donated to the designer by her Swedish friends. Each pattern is inspired by its previous owner.

The background to the exhibit is a lifecycle analysis report on Swedish Textile consumption carried out by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute in 2013. This report states that the average Swedish citizen consumes 15kg of textiles per year, half of these will be disposed of within the first year of use. The majority of discarded textiles in Sweden are currently being incinerated, with only a small portion being reused through charities – of which most are based outside of Sweden’s borders. Sweden is currently not recycling any textile waste.

The designer proposes an investigation into how a linking system and service might be set in place between Swedish weavers and its consumers TT7/ TT9. According to Sweden’s Textile Craft’s (Textil Hemslöjd) homepage there are 10,000 active weavers located in 600 ‘Weave cabins’ (Vävstugor) around the country.

Galleries & Media

The Collection

Frida ZigZag

Frida Dimond

Maria Stripes

Elbow patch

Anna Geometri

Ida ZigZag

Maria Geometri

Anna Polka Dot

Knee patch

75% of Swedish second hand clohes are shipped to Kenya

THE COLLECTION

The fabric swatches can in its current scale be used as repair patches, straps, belts and cases. They would on a bigger scale be suitable for interior textiles such as upholstery fabric, mats and cushion covers etc.

Designing patterns for the clothes previous owners.

Colour matching in the dye lab

Beaming on the warp

Threading up the loom

Picking apart the second hand clothes

Making wrappings, colour matching

Inspirational wrappings

Cut offs

PROCESS

The samples are woven as double cloth on a 24 shaft Arm loom. The warp is made of durable TENCEL yarn, which has been hand dyed to match the weft. The weft is made out of ripped up second hand clothes and TENCEL yarn.

My ninety four year old grandfather, milk farmer and forest keeper.

Tea towel woven by my grandmother. The stain in the middle is from jam making.

Rug made out of discarded textiles, woven by my grandmother.

Sock mended by my grandmother. A new part has been knitted onto the old but still usable cuff.

Second hand clothing was used as inspiration and weft.

An illustration of the lifecycle of Swedish textiles based on a report by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute from 2013.

RESEARCH

A talk with my ninety four year old grandfather last Christmas was the initial starting point of this project. The sparing way in which my grandparents consumed textiles has inspired this project. My second source of inspiration is a Swedish Textile Lifecycle Analysis Report carried out by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute in 2013.